PHLUR

PHLUR is a United States fragrance brand founded in Austin, Texas, and known today for a digital-first, ingredient-transparency approach to fine perfume. Most editorial and trade sources date its founding to 2014, when husband-and-wife team Eric and Cynthia Korman launched it as a Certified B Corp [9][7]; a later date of around 2016 sometimes appears, but no published source supports it. The brand remains active, with new 2025–2026 releases, an annual membership program, and reported expansion into roughly 1,500 retail stores.

After a change of ownership in 2021 and a consumer-facing relaunch in 2022 under creative director Chriselle Lim, PHLUR became one of the most-discussed fragrance names of its moment, driven largely by its scent Missing Person and a large social-media following.

Eric Korman, a former president of Ralph Lauren Digital and Global E-Commerce, and Cynthia Korman, an art director who had worked for publishing houses including Condé Nast and Hearst, started the company in Austin, Texas [7]. From the outset it was positioned as a digital-first, Certified B Corp fragrance house focused on environmentally conscious perfume, body care, and home fragrance. According to trade coverage, the brand pioneered ingredient transparency in fragrance by disclosing its full formulas, including the composition of the fragrance oils themselves [9].

In June 2019 the company completed a $6 million Series A round led by Symrise, Next Coast Ventures, and Belcorp [7]. A turning point came on February 24, 2021, when The Center, a brand incubator founded by Ben Bennett, acquired PHLUR [9]. Bennett had established The Center in 2019 after selling his stake in HatchBeauty Brands, describing its aim as building beauty and wellness brands from scratch or resetting existing ones "for their next evolution of growth" [9].

The acquisition brought in Chriselle Lim, a digital content creator, as co-owner and creative director. Sources place her arrival at the 2021 acquisition, while the wider consumer relaunch landed in 2022 [8]. That relaunch repositioned the label around a persona the brand's chronicler described as "sexy, cool, and covetable—the perfume equivalent to a mysterious downtown girl" [7].

PHLUR is owned by The Center, the incubator led by founder and chief executive Ben Bennett [9]. The company acquired the brand from its original owners in February 2021; the earlier $6 million Series A investors included the fragrance-ingredient maker Symrise. No sister brands are recorded in the available sources.

The company presents PHLUR as a house of "modern fragrances mindfully formulated, responsibly sourced, and meticulously crafted by world-class perfumers," summed up in the tagline "Phlur creates scents for the present tense." Its stated intent is that a fragrance should be "meant to enhance, but never define, your every mood and moment."

Although PHLUR helped popularize the idea of "clean" fragrance, the brand says it no longer uses that term, arguing that "clean" lacks any regulated meaning in the industry. It instead emphasizes transparent sourcing and a deliberate mix of natural and synthetic materials, noting on its own pages that "natural doesn't always equal safer." Independent coverage describes its scents as vegan, cruelty-free, and formulated without parabens or phthalates [8].

PHLUR's range spans eau de parfum, body mists, body care, and gift sets, with perfumers including Frank Voelkl, Jérôme Epinette, and Gil Clavien credited on its work. Its best-known scent is Missing Person, a floral woody musk built, in the brand's telling, around "an absence: the lingering smell of someone you love." The fragrance sold out and drew a waiting list of about 250,000 people [8]. Other signature scents include Father Figure, Heavy Cream, and Vanilla Skin, the last a blend of sugar, cashmere wood, and sandalwood composed by Clement Gavarry [7]. Newer releases such as Honey Moon and Cherry Stem have since joined the lineup.

Consistent with its transparency positioning, the brand publishes per-product ingredient lists that classify each material as safe synthetic, botanical, or natural-derived. On packaging, it says it uses post-consumer recycled materials and FSC-certified paper cartons and has reduced its plastic and paper use since 2021.

PHLUR reached wide public attention chiefly through social media rather than formal awards. Citing a RetailBoss analysis, one editorial account reported that PHLUR was the most-mentioned fragrance brand among influencers in the preceding year, ahead of legacy luxury houses including Dior, YSL Beauty, Chanel, Prada, and Lancôme [8]. A 2025 BeautyMatter feature described the company as a "$100M fragrance powerhouse" and reported revenue of $100 to $125 million [7]. Its "Icons" campaign has featured figures such as Olympic gymnast Suni Lee sharing personal fragrance stories.

PHLUR is active. Its storefront carries new 2025–2026 releases, an annual membership program priced at $50 a year, and ongoing campaigns, and it reportedly expanded into around 1,500 retail stores in 2025. A prominent "Farewell Sale" on its site is a clearance of discontinued scents rather than a sign of the brand winding down. Its products are sold direct-to-consumer through phlur.com and through retailers including Sephora and Credo [9].